System Administrator
Location: GB, CMD, London
Department: Technology
Salary range: 30000-35000
Employment type: Full-time
Required experience: Associate
Required education: Vocational
Industry: Marketing and Advertising
Function: Information Technology

Company profile:
The Technical Team and offering at VML London has a very strong heritage dating back to the mid-nineties when the London office was founded. Back in those days we were one of the first few purely digital marketing agencies in London; and back then things were a lot more technically driven than they often are today; as such the Technology team here continues to enjoy a strong strategic influence on the work that the agency undertakes and the clients that we engage.It just works.Technology is brilliant when you don’t have to think about it. That’s what we strive for in our solutions. Our technology team has a strong strategic influence on the work we undertake and are involved as soon as the brief lands. They stay involved throughout strategy, creative concepting and design. Acting as important enablers, we bring new and emerging technology to the table to successfully marry the requirements of our clients with the vision of our creatives.Open standards, open minds.We aim to deliver the most elegant technical solution for your budget, and maintain a technology agnostic approach to development in order to achieve that. Technology can be expensive, both in terms of hard costs and costly mistakes, so we’re as careful with your money as we are with our own.   Perhaps that’s why some of our clients have been with us for over 10 years. When faced with a new problem our first instinct is always to see if someone else has already solved it. As such, the solutions we design are built on the rich eco-system of open source software (OSS); the proven and battle-tested kind that we know will not just do the job quickly and cost-effectively, but also robustly. Where OSS isn't appropriate we always favour solutions that are built to open standards that we know will integrate well with other technologies.Strong partnerships.Our work is complemented by strong partnerships with technology vendors and suppliers.   Proven over time, our established strategic relationships with many of the leaders in software, hardware and other technology solutions help ensure we’re able to continue to offer best-in-class technical solutions for our clients.What we do:High availability and high performance website architecture &amp; developmentWeb content management solutionsCreative technology ideationContent optimisation, search and analyticsHigh volume, multi-locale email campaignsMobile optimisationLocalisation

Job description:
The role of the SAs is a vital role in the running of the platforms VML manage! We have a number of clients’ sites that require SA skills and maintenance as well as numerous internal machines/sites that need to be looked after.We are looking for a passionate SA to join the team to bring TLC to the platforms, to make them feel warm, loved and cared for and to keep them happy and running! As well as build new platforms and tools, support in-house development platforms and provide advice and knowledge about OS/DBA/hardware where needed. Role summary:What does the role of the SA entail for us…. Well:a)     Building new environment for clients, be it on the cloud platforms (Azure or AWS) or on bare-metalb)     Maintaining current sites (live and development) which are running Ubuntu, RHEL(4,5 and 6), Windows (not in live), with MySQL, Java, Tomcat, Apache webserver, NGnix, etc.. configurationsc)      Returning sites/machines to working state when they have crashes/had an outaged)     Pro-active maintenance and support to minimize outagese)     Building and configuring new support tools/platforms (e.g. JIRA, Confluence, Hudson etc..) as and when required.f)      Supporting and providing ideas and solutions for the Technical team for OS/DB issues (e.g. suggested infrastructures) etc..

Requirements:
Detailed knowledge of the Linux OS (RHEL ideally, with Ubuntu knowledge)DBA skills in MySQL (e.g. backups, restores, configurations), other DBs acceptableWebserver configuration (Apache and NGnix)Knowledge of Java based application systems (Tomcat ideal, JBoss and others acceptable)Knowledge of scripting (shell/php/sed/awk/etc..)Willingness to support out of hours and be on call if requiredAWS/Azure/Bare-metal builds.Hudson/Jenkins/Automated build and deploy tools (installation and maintenance)Source Control (SVN/GIT) installation and maintenanceGood written and verbal skills Useful extra knowledge and skills:Experience with CMS systems (CQ)Programming knowledge (Java ideal)Virtualization (e.g. HyperV)Windows server support and IIS knowledgePostgres DBA skillsKnowledge of Vagrant, Maven, PuppetLDAPSambaKey responsibilities:Maintaining and supporting live sites/machinesMaintaining and supporting development sites/machinesDeployments of code to multiple environments.Pro-active maintenanceTrouble-shooting and diagnosing issuesBuilding new environments.Taking the lead – proposing solutions, not expecting them to be given to you!Writing (where applicable) P1/2 reports. Challenges of the roleCoping with multiple, sometimes overlapping work streams – including P1 outagesBleeding edge technology changes Communicating with major stakeholders (TD, MD, CFO, Ops Dir etc..)Proposing technical OS/DB solutions for platforms and sites as required.Making sure the live sites *never* go down!!! 

Benefits: